Tom Harris, also known as The Hill Country Gardener, is a Master Gardener certified by the State of Texas, a Master Pruner certified by the San Antonio Botanical Garden, and a founder and volunteer for the Gardening Volunteers of South Texas (GVST).

Note: This is an mySA.com City Brights Blog. These blogs are not written or edited by mySA or the San Antonio Express-News. The authors are solely responsible for the content.

New Beds— Finally

Last summer, I started laying out and killing the grass for 3 new beds in the back yard. These are pretty big beds— about 800 or so square feet each. That was last summer. Over the rest of the summer and the fall, I just didn’t have the energy to finish them up.

Then, after Thanksgiving, I got a real burst of energy and decided to finally get them finished. First I bought about 40 or so landscape timbers while they were on sale, then I got the county work crew to deliver me some soil they dug from the ditches in front of the Rose Palace by the Scenic Loop Cafe — that’s gotta be some of the richest dirt in the whole county (all the rain last spring and summer washed the top layers off those holding pens and all the horse waste-products washed out, too, and settled in those ditches). Whatever. Then I had quite a pile of mulch left over from last year and it was decomposed quite a bit.

After I got the timbers laid out, drilled, and fastened to the ground, Ron and I started mixing that rich soil with the decomposed mulch (about 2-3 parts soil to one part mulch) and hauling it to the beds. It took about two weeks to get them all filled, but they’re finished.

Courtesy photo

In the meantime, I purchased enough supplies to put drip irrigation in all the beds—300 feet of drip line with the emitters built in every 12 inches. Then I got a timer and added it into the line so that the watering is done automatically. Anywho, about a week before Christmas it was all finished and I had the trial run on the drip irrigation system. It worked just fine and didn’t have any leaks.

Now I can plant some of those trees and bushes that have been growing in the greenhouse for almost a year. I have several oak trees that I started from acorns and several large bushes that I started from seeds; oughta look really nice next spring/summer.

If you wanna come take a look, just lemme know and I’ll let you know how to get here.

Repotting Plants

This is an excellent time to repot those plants that have been in the pots since last spring. It’s not hard to do, just takes some time and patience.

First get some really good potting soil or compost and be sure that you have the new pots ready if you’re not gonna just re-pot in the same containers.

For those plants that are candidates for repotting, first water them real good so that they’ll come out of the pot easily. Then cut off most of the foliage; it’s probably dormant or has died back by now anyway. Cut it off right down to about an inch out of the soil.

Take a long knife or straight-edge of some type and run it around the outside of the root ball inside the pot. This will loosen any roots that might be clinging to the inside wall. Now support the plant with one hand and turn the pot upside down. The root ball should slip right out.

If the roots are very thick and tangled-looking all around the root ball, take a sharp knife and cut away about an inch of the roots and the soil they’re in…this will not harm the plant…I guarantee it. It actually will stimulate the plant to put on new roots when it’s back in the pot.

Now put about an inch of potting soil or compost in the bottom of the pot and put the cut-root ball in the center of it. Fill all around the root ball with potting soil and DON’T pack it in— just fill the pot up. Watering it will drive out the air spaces and allow the soil to shrink to fit the root ball…then you can fill up the pot. Don’t put any soil on top of the root ball because that would have the effect of planting the plant deeper than it was originally. That’ll kill it. Don’t add any fertilizer to it at this time. You can do that next spring.

You can keep repotting plants like this every 2-3 years for many years. Each time you do it, you’re gonna see a blush of new growth the next season after you fertilize and water it with the spring regimen.

Tomatoes and Onions

Stopping by the Hill Country African Violet Nursery out on I-10 the other day, I talked to Ken Froboese and he told me that he’ll have his spring tomatoes and onions in by end of month for those of you who have greenhouses and/or beds ready for the onions. Don’t try to put the tomatoes in the ground now; they’ll just freeze. You can go ahead and pot them up if you have a greenhouse, though.